Verhofstadt: We have to fight racism and populism in Europe

Statement by President of ALDE on rise of populist far right movements across Europe

In more and more European countries we see the rise of extreme right and populist parties. In several countries they are elected to parliament, in some they are even in government or supporting the government. This evolution worries the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats a lot because what the extremist and populist parties are standing for is exactly the opposite of what we believe in and what we are fighting for day after day in the European Union.

Across Europe, Liberal parties follow different strategies in order to oppose extremist and populist parties. We trust that liberal parties will stand strong and firm on our shared liberal values. On these matters, the ALDE Group will be vigilant. We will judge the governments on their policies. We will not accept they will ever end in racist, intolerant policies targeted against minorities based on colour, religion, origin or sexual orientation. We will not hesitate to act if necessary, as we did over the Roma issue, to condemn acts of intolerance and prejudice. We will never accept policies that conflict with fundamental liberal and democratic values.

Perhaps more worrying is the tendency that more and more politicians from moderate parties from all over Europe are starting to repeat the same populist discourse. (Over the last few weeks and months) we have seen policies against minorities (including the Roma), a general radicalisation about religion and attacks against the open and multicultural society. We also see a return of the discourse of national identity.

For all moderate politicians there is a choice to make. Either we follow this populist discourse in the hope of countering it - a contradictory approach in so far as one cannot oppose extreme right and populist ideas by imitating them - or we analyse more carefully the reasons for the rise of these parties.

It is a fact that European citizens fear their welfare is declining. They fear the consequences of climate change. They fear that globalisation means that other continents are taking over and Europe will be left behind. The successful formula of extreme right and populist parties is that they feed and exploit these fears and propose a closed society instead.

We, Liberals and Democrats, are convinced this ideology of retreating into a nationalist air-raid shelter is the wrong answer to the current challenges. Even more, this answer will turn the challenges into more serious problems for our future. What we need to do instead is to adapt our society to the new multi-polar world: provide the answers to the current economic crisis, and make the process of globalisation something with positive benefit to people's lives; create a humane sustainable and balanced European migration policy; vigorously defend the open society.

This conclusion after a broad debate in the Bureau of the ALDE - Group shall be the basis of a conference in which we will elaborate with in-depth analyses the rise of extreme right and populism in Europe and the strategies to counter them.

By Mr. Guy Verhofstadt, President of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) in the European Parliament